The Tigrinya letters (ፊደላት) in the last charts have the consonants in rows and the vowels in columns. Each letter is represented by one consonant (or consonant cluster) and one vowel. There are seven written vowels in Tigrinya with each vowel altering the form of a consonant. All of the consonant-vowel combinations in the first column are called first orders, and the ones in the second column are second orders, and so on. The first order is identical to the letters used in the original Ge'ez before the vocalizations were created centuries ago. The other six orders are alterations of the original Ge'ez letters. Each vowel order alters the Ge'ez letters in a similar way. Though there are many irregularities, the letters of the same order resemble each other in at least one aspect -- the aspect that characterized the order.

Although the Tigrinya script can form simple syllables with one letter, sometimes it takes multiple letters to form one complex syllable. The complex syllables are formed using the sixth order which serves the purpose of being a vowel carrier and alternatively functions as a mute consonant (without a vowel). For example the Tigrinya word for "name", ሥም, is one syllable but uses two letters. Although it is pronounced as /sɨm/ it could also be read as /'sɨ.mɨ/. There is no way to distinguish the sixth order's functions in written Tigrinya.

In the charts below there are certain rows written in grey which indicate that those letters are of the same phonetic value as the previous row written in black. There are multiple ways to write some letters in Tigrinya as some of the sounds that were once used in Ge'ez are non-existent in modern Tigrinya. At the cost of redundancy Tigrinya speakers retain the archaic letters in their orthography in order to preserve the Ge'ez origins of many of their words. Also keep in mind that the English approximations are in some cases very rough, and are only intended to give a general idea of the pronunciation.